That’s what Donald Sterling intended to do with his sit down interview with Anderson Cooper of CNN, which will air at length Monday night on the news network. Show the world he’s not a bad guy, start climbing out of his self-created hole.

But from the early excerpts released, it looks like Sterling had his shovel in hand and just kept on digging. And with that he gives the NBA more reason to oust him for being bad for business and the league’s image.

“I’m not a racist,” Sterling told Cooper. “I made a terrible, terrible mistake. And I’m here with you today to apologize and to ask for forgiveness for all the people that I’ve hurt.”

Then Sterling kept on digging. He says he was set up, that the words he spoke in private when he thought he could get away with it were not what he really thinks. Sterling goes with the odd “out of body experience” defense.

“When I listen to that tape, I don’t even know how I can say words like that. … I don’t know why the girl had me say those things,” he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in an exclusive interview set to air on Monday.

“You’re saying you were set up?” Cooper asked.

“Well yes, I was baited,” Sterling said. “I mean, that’s not the way I talk. I don’t talk about people for one thing, ever. I talk about ideas and other things. I don’t talk about people.”

The recorded fight that first aired on TMZ started because Sterling’s mistress V. Stiviano had posted photos on her Instagram account with Magic Johnson. On the recording Sterling questions why she would broadcast that she is seen with black men and he adds that he never wanted her to bring them or Magic to “his games,” referring to the Clippers. (Magic said no problem, I’ll never come to a Clippers game again so long as he is the owner.)

Sterling said he had spoken to Magic since the incident, but then couldn’t resist another dig.

“If I said anything wrong, I’m sorry,” Sterling said. “He’s a good person. I mean, what am I going to say? Has he done everything he can do to help minorities? I don’t think so. But I’ll say it, he’s great. But I don’t think he’s a good example for the children of Los Angeles.”

Magic is far from a perfect human being, but as a native Angelino if my children grow up to have the positive impact Magic did on Los Angeles I’d be incredibly proud. Not the impact he had as a player, the impact as a person, as a business man. For one, Johnson helped change the perception of HIV/AIDS with many people around the nation, showing it was more than a “gay plague” (as if that somehow made the deaths less tragic) and was something much bigger and far reaching.

Magic Johnson the business man made a chunk of his money building first-class shopping centers and bringing amenities such as new movie theaters and grocery stores to predominantly African-American (and other minority) neighborhoods. Johnson helped evolve neighborhoods. Where other developers feared to tread Magic was a pioneer and showed the institutional bias in the system.

Magic and his wife donate extensively to charity, both with their time and money. Not just putting their pictures in the paper touting projects that never come close to getting built (as Sterling did on Skid Row in Los Angeles, among other things). Magic backs up his words.

If Sterling’s issues with Magic are about cheating on his wife back in the day, that would be a sad coincidence.

Sterling says in the CNN interview he thinks he deserves a second chance from the other NBA owners after he made one mistake in 35 years. Suggesting that there has been just one mistake is laughable. He ran a shoddy organization only to make a profit for decades, something that just changed in recent years (and he still makes a healthy profit, which he should, but he’s spending now). His team was an embarrassment to the league for decades. That’s not even getting onto the housing discrimination lawsuits or reevaluations in the Elgin Baylor lawsuit. The league had Sterling sign additional ethics documents for a reason.

The fact of the matter is that the NBA’s moral outrage coincides with its business interests here — sponsors are pulling out from the Clippers and the players were considering a boycott if Silver had not come down hard on Sterling. The league will not back down here (although if they could find a compromise to make this go away and remove the Sterlings, they would consider it). In the middle of what has been a great playoffs for the league, they have had to deal with Sterling giving the Association its biggest black eye since the “malice in the Palace” incident. Because of that the league is not going to back off its efforts to force a sale here. Not with him or his wife.

You can be sure both of them will fight this, although in the interview Sterling suggests he doesn’t gain from a fight (this is where I think his wife is his proxy, that this is more coordinated than it appears at first blush). It is only going to get uglier.

Sterling will see this as fighting, but what he’s really doing is just keeping on digging.

The Pelicans are disappointing this season — it is Anthony Davis vs. the world down there. Which is the main reason they are 7-16 this season. While things have gotten better since Jrue Holiday‘s return, Davis is averaging a league-best 31.4 points per game, it then drops off to Holiday at 15.4, and then E'Twaun Moore at 11.1.

When a team struggles, usually that is a bad sign for the coach. Not because it’s always their fault, but because GMs choose not to fire themselves for poor roster construction. Which leads to the question: Alvin Gentry, are you concerned about your job? (Warning, NSFW)

New Orleans’ struggles are not on Gentry, certainly not completely. He’d like a roster that can play uptempo, that has depth. What he got instead was a good point guard, an elite 4/5, a rookie in Buddy Hield that maybe pans out down the line, and then… nada. And the roster Gentry has often is banged up.

If anyone is in trouble, it is GM Dell Demps. Remember, Danny Ferry was hired last summer for the vague role of “special advisor.” Gentry is in his second year, and the issue is the roster he was given. But the Pelicans are a patient organization that values continuity, so… who knows. But the clock is ticking on Davis;, it’s years away, but the Pelicans need to build a team around him and are far from that right now.

Jones told the Beacon Journal he will retire after next season, which will be his 15th in the NBA. His ultimate dream is to ride off after three consecutive championships in Cleveland

“I know playing 15 years is a number where I can look back and I can be like, ‘I accomplished something,’ ” Jones said. “Fourteen vs. 15 may not be much, but to be able to say I played 15 years, that’s enough for me to hang ’em up.”

Jones’ contract expires after the season, so the Cavs will have a say in whether he returns. Safe to say if LeBron wants him back, Jones will be back.

But the Heat got into trouble relying on washed-up veterans around LeBron, wasting valuable roster spots on players who could no longer contribute.

Is that Jones? Not yet. Though he’s out of the rotation, he has still made 11-of-12 open 3-pointers this season. There’s a role for him as spot-up shooter when Cleveland needs one.

Still, the Cavaliers ought to be mindful of Jones’ likely decline over the next year and a half. Plus, it’s not a certainty he holds to his timeline. Cavs veterans have a history of changing their mindon retirement.

Phil Jackson wants us to know Carmelo Anthony can hold on to the ball too long and stall out the offense.

Shocking. Such a revelation. It’s not like he knew that when he gave Anthony a five-year contract extension… oh, wait, everybody did know that already.

Which leads to my criticism of Jackson in this PBT Extra. Taking a shot at a player as a coach who sees said player every day comes off differently than the same thing from the ivory tower criticism of a GM. Plus, Jackson’s timing made no sense.

The New York Knicks were on a four-game winning streak, they have looked like a potential playoff team in the East, team chemistry has been pretty good, and there seemed to be more sun shining on Madison Square Garden then we have seen in a few years.

“At the end of the day we’re playing good basketball,” Anthony said. “That’s the only thing that matters at this point. So any negativity that’s coming towards me or towards the team, I don’t think we need it at this point…

“I feel like we’re playing good basketball, and just to have a temporary black cloud over our heads,” he said. “I don’t know when the comments were made or the gist of them, I just know something was said.”

Anthony is spot on here. Jackson isn’t wrong that Anthony can hold the ball too long, but Jackson knew that when he gave Anthony a five-year contract extension. Also, the Sports VU camera data shows Anthony is holding the ball less and dribbling a little less than previous seasons.

But the real question: What did Jackson think he would accomplish with this? He’s too smart, too calculated — he doesn’t just say things to the press without a motive. But with everything going about as well as one could hope with the Knicks, and with Anthony not at a point in his career he’s going to change his game, what’s the point?